CNN News:人類探測器歷時十年登陸彗星

At 48 miles long and 37 miles wide, Rhode Island is the smallest U.S. state. But it has the biggest name - but Carl, you might say Rhode Island has 11 letters in it. North and South Carolina, each have 13. We`ll check it. Rhode Island`s official name is State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantation.

全長48英里，37英里寬的羅德島是美國最小的州，但是它卻有一個響亮的名字，但是Carl，你可能會說羅德島州一共有11個字母!北卡羅萊納州和南卡羅拉納州每個都有13個字母。我們會檢查一下。羅德島州的正式名字為羅德島州與普羅維登斯莊園州。

That`s huge and that`s random.

這個名字很長也很少見。

It`s called the Rosetta Mission. For the first time ever, scientists are attempting to land a manmade spacecraft on a comet. You are looking at an animation of our Solar System. The comet we are talking about has the purple orbit on your screen. It`s named comet 67-P. Rosetta is the spacecraft that`s been traveling to it. It has the red orbit. It`s a $1.7 billion project by the European Space Agency.

這是一個被稱為Rosetta的任務(wù)。這也是第一次科學(xué)家計(jì)劃讓一顆人類探測器降落在一顆彗星上面?，F(xiàn)在是從太空發(fā)回來的太陽系畫面。我們現(xiàn)在談?wù)摰钠聊簧铣霈F(xiàn)的這個彗星彗星有著紫色的軌道，名稱為67-P彗星。Rosetta是朝著該彗星前進(jìn)的飛船。Rosetta飛船有著紅色的軌道，這個飛船由歐洲航天局建造并花費(fèi)了17億美元。

It`s taken ten years for Rosetta to meet up with comet 67-P. Now, it`s on the break of releasing its small lander. About the size of the Washing machine, under the comet surface e.

Rosetta花費(fèi)了10年時間才能追趕上67-P號彗星的步伐，現(xiàn)在Rosetta飛船正在該彗星上釋放小型著陸器。這個著陸器大小僅僅有洗衣機(jī)大小，降落在彗星表面。

Scientists are hoping it will gather all kinds of information. The density in heat on comet 67-P. The chemicals that might be there.

科學(xué)家們希望通過釋放著陸器來從彗星上提取需要的信息，彗星67-P上的熱密度，那里可能存在著一些科學(xué)家尋找化學(xué)元素。

They want to know what comets are made of, and how they react when they get close to the Sun. But landing this really hard to do. Researchers say it has to land at the right time, in the right direction, with the right velocity. If it doesn`t, the mission could come to a crashing halt.

科學(xué)家們想知道彗星是由什么構(gòu)成的，還有當(dāng)它靠近太陽的時候會有怎樣的反應(yīng)。但是著陸工作非常困難。研究人員稱著陸工作必須在非常恰當(dāng)?shù)臅r間進(jìn)行，還需要準(zhǔn)確的地點(diǎn)以及合適的運(yùn)行速度。如果沒有符合條件的話任務(wù)將會被終止。

If the lander hits a boulder or a crevice, it could tip over. It will take half an hour for the lander`s signal even to reach Earth, letting them know if this worked. As one European space agency scientist put it, everything is knew.

如果探測器碰到了石塊或者碎石，探測器則可能會翻到。從探測器發(fā)出的信號需要花費(fèi)一個半小時才能傳回地球，地面工作人員才能知道方案是否可能。就像歐洲宇航局科學(xué)家說的一樣，一切都是可知的。